Ep 34 Methodologies: Design Thinking P2 - Ideation phase

The second in a 3-part crash course in Design Thinking. In this episode, I will teach you how to take the insights you found through your research in the inspiration phase and start to brainstorm ideas by learning how to craft ‘How might we’ statements and the 7 rules for running a better brainstorm.

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Transcript

Stephen Gates : 0:00

What's going on everybody, and welcome to the 34th episode of The Crazy One podcast. As always, I'm your host, Stephen Gates. And this is the show where we talk about creativity, leadership design, and a whole host of other things that matter to creative people. Now today, we're going to keep going with this three part miniseries that I've been doing to teach you design thinking. Back in Episode 33, I gave you an overview of design thinking. And we talked about the first phase of this methodology, which was inspiration. Some of you may have slept a time or two since then. So let's do a quick recap of that show, just as a refresher. Now, if you didn't listen to that episode, I would highly encourage you to stop this show and go back and listen to it. Because while Yes, this is the cliff notes, you're not gonna get what you need out of it just from the cliff notes. So go back and listen to it. But for everybody else, let's just do a quick recap. So we talked about how design thinking is a methodology to solve any problem. It's just a way of kind of giving creativity shape and form so anybody can engage with it. But the biggest challenge that you're gonna have is the word design. That's in the title. Because a lot of people find this alienating. They think that it's only about visually visualizing things and sketching and stuff like that, which we all know, isn't true. Then from there, we went and talked about the first phase of design thinking, which is inspiration. And that the first part of the first phase was the design challenge. And to make sure that you have the right type of problem to solve, that we talked about how important it is that you're actually getting a problem to be solved, not a solution to be vetted. Because that's one of the biggest places where I see this methodology fall down. And it's not the fault of design thinking, but it's the fact that people just simply aren't getting the right problem to solve. And so from there, we talked about research and how there were three main ways of doing research. There was immersion, interviewing and observation, emerging immersion being to actually go out and put yourself in somebody else's shoes. Interviewing was going out and talking to people and observing was going out and watching them because we still struggle with this challenge that what people Saying what they do, don't always line up. But that also, whenever you do that, to look for extreme users and extreme usage behavior, that there's the 10% of people who have probably hardly ever done something 80%, who do it all the time, and then the other 10% on the high end, who do it professionally. And then what you really want to go and look for that those 10% on the edges, the people who hardly ever do it, the people who do it professionally, well, they're the ones that are gonna really kind of show you the way and provide the most interesting insights. Because that 80% it's just gonna be too hard to dig that out. And then finally, we talked about synthesis, which is the last phase of inspiration. And synthesis is making meaning out of all these observations that we know you're doing that research, we're doing the observations, it's really just about the what it's about the facts. But whenever you do synthesis, and you turn into insights, this is about the why, and the interpretation. So all of that sets the stage for today when we're going to move on to the second phase which is ideation and ideation in this case, Just made up of only two parts. What I'll describe is kind of framing the opportunity, which is how do we build the bridge from insights into something that we can actually then start to brainstorm against, because I think this is one of the areas where so many creatives struggle, because if you can't figure out how to interpret that correctly, if you can't set the stage the right way for your team, you might not actually be able to really get all the best ideas that you can. And so I think there's a great way but Well honestly admit an incredibly challenging way of doing that, that we're going to walk through. And then we'll talk about ideation. And this is actually doing the brainstorming coming up with ideas. This is the part where most people jump in at the creative process. And we'll talk about why that's a bit of a challenge. So let's jump in. And let's start talking about the first part of framing the opportunity. Now, I've said this before, is that the challenge that I think for most creatives is how do you get from insights to ideation? Because I think this can be a challenge of translation that I think a lot of cases will try to come through creative brief. And the creative brief tries to take these insights and tries to line them up and encapsulate them in a way that makes sense and tries to standardize it. The challenges, though, is that creativity doesn't often fit well into a form. And that those briefs and a lot of cases, they just they don't give you a whole hell of a lot to brainstorm against. If that's the case, if you're not really getting what you need. If you're not sure how to translate it, the challenge is that there might be some really good insights, there might be some really good information that's going to get lost, and that it might not translate it into the actual ideation work, we might lose something we might lose a potential of a really great idea. So how do we rethink this? How do we reframe this opportunity? So in design thinking, we do this through something that's called How might we statements and how might we statements or short questions that you can use to launch a brand Storm? And by framing your challenges, how might we question you'll set yourself up much better, I think, to really create innovative solutions. So let's stop for a second and look at what does this actually mean? What does How might we actually mean? Because I think that it's three words that seem very simple, but they were very deliberately constructed. And I think it's good for you to understand this, that there is a subtext to this that most people may not immediately get are seen as obvious. But I think that it really sets the stage and it does a nice job of framing the methodology. So the word how and how might we, I think that this does a really nice thing, because it really, it assumes that a solution exists. Because I think that's the part especially as you start to work with design thinking for groups outside of the designer, the creative team, and which I think is one of the most powerful parts of design thinking is the fact that you can bring everybody to the table and then it really sets the stage for almost a Trojan horse for change. We talked about this in Episode 33, about how it empowers the creative team. But the how really sets up the stage and it tells people that there is actually a solution we can come to the might part of this. So might means that this is a process that is free of judgment. And the fact that we are talking about setting the stage for a brainstorm, we don't want to start to close this down. We don't want to start to shut off ideas too quickly. And I think that this is also the place where design thinking can become so powerful because as somebody who has spent the last well over the last decade of my career coming in and working with and kind of rehabilitating in house design teams, the might in this is incredibly important. Because so often you'll see even on the most creative teams, that they can start to limit themselves especially if you have people that have been with the team for any period of time, because they have legacy knowledge, which is a great thing. Don't get me wrong, but It can also become an inhibitor. Because what they know is that they know that things have been tried before they know that things have been done before. And maybe they didn't work. Well. So why are we going to go retread that path whenever we know that we've done it before, and it didn't work? Well, as we all know, there's a lot that goes into the success or failure of any single project. So it's not always just that one dimensional that we did it before. And well, maybe it's probably not gonna work again. Now. Society may have changed, the company may have changed, leadership may have changed, the team may have changed, the opportunity may have changed, maybe this is the time to bring this back. So that might means that we're gonna really proceed free of judgment. And I think that's a really important thing when you're doing any brainstorm, is to try to push as far as you can, because there is just going to be a natural gravity to a project. And what I mean by that is the fact that I try to go out and I try to push this might as far as we can, because this is the time when anything is possible. This is the dreamland This is the reason why we all do this stuff, because this is the time when we can imagine Anything, will shortly after this reality will come crashing in budgets, timelines, businesses, clients, society user testing tons of other things, we'll set the stage for the reality of how far can we actually push this. So if that gravity is going to pull the idea back, I wouldn't rather it be much, much further out. So when it gets pulled back, it's still significantly ahead of something that I did that was really safe, which again, will still get pulled back a bit to then become something that was less than safe. It's not impactful. And I think you see this process far too many times at far too many companies. But finally, and how might we we have the V. And then that means that we're going to come up with this solution together. It's not how might I? It's how might we and I've talked with this many, many times throughout this podcast that creativity is a team sport. There's nothing I've ever done in my career that I did alone. There's not anything that shows up in my book that I ever did completely on my own. Creativity is better as a team It's a team sport. And it's a team sport that we need to get as many different opinions into as we can. So I think that all of those things are incredibly important. But I think that that's really the subtext that sits below this, how might we, that really just kind of explains it. Now, that being said, in all honesty, I think that crafting great How might we statements, honestly, is one of the hardest things to do in the entire creative process. They seem simple. They're the bridge between insights that we have in a brainstorm that we need to have, but they can be challenging. Let me explain what I mean by this. Because I need to craft a statement that is broad enough, that there are a wide range of solutions to it. But it also needs to be narrow enough that the team can have some helpful boundaries. Because that's really the problem is that, like, the worst thing you could ever do to a creative is to be able to say to give them a problem. And you say, What do you want? And it's like, Oh, you know what, just do whatever you want. That freedom is almost paralyzing. Because there are so many options. There's so many different directions. How do I bring direction and structure to this? And so if my How might we statement is too broad, then it just loses focus, and it goes all over the place. If we need some sort of boundaries, that's great. I think that's oftentimes the best creativity comes out of the tightest boundaries. But I think you also have to be careful on the other side, that you don't start leading the witness that you don't start crafting How might we statements that have solutions in them, or that are really leading to just a singular outcome? Because I think that's the burden. It's the responsibility of this process. And for those of us who lead it, that we keep it open ended, and that we keep it like I said before, that we don't lead the witness. Because the reality is, and the thing that I've found is that if you actually want to do work that is truly innovative, and I don't mean innovative in like that, we're gonna put out a screenshot in a press release to talk about about what we do someday, I don't mean innovative in that we're gonna take it to south by and stick it in the booth and never release it like I don't mean that in terms of innovative. I mean, if you actually want to release something into the market that consumers use, that actually changes the way things are done, you don't start processes like that, by knowing where you're going to end up, you have to go and you have to talk to people, you have to observe and immerse, and you have to find the insights and you have to set up the opportunity to go and find those things that nobody else has done. And that that's really the challenge. And the responsibility in this is that we stay impartial and that we don't lead towards the easy answer. We don't lead towards the outcome that we think the client wants, that we let the process see where it goes. And if it ends up, they're great. And you know what it very well may, but at the same point to make sure that we're open and that we're pushing on this stuff. I've done all this talking about how my reason I still haven't really explained what the hell one of them is, and I haven't given you an example. So let's fix that. And let's look at an example that I think That might help. So let's just say that we have a design challenge. And that that design challenge is to redesign the ground experience at a local International Airport. So the ground experiences obviously, whenever you're in the airport, something that happens there. That's broad. So let's be a little bit more specific. So specifically, how do we entertain playful children who might irritate already frustrated fellow passengers? We've all been there, you're sitting in an airport, you're delayed, you're running late. Just something I mean, traveling itself, especially air travel is not often the most soothing experience. And if you've ever been on the plane with a crying child with a bunch of rambunctious children, even if you have kids, even if you empathize with the parents, there are times that it still may irritate you. So how would we go about this? And so what how might we statement is just in its literal structure is that it starts with the words, how might we? And then it's a question that will actually try to frame an opportunity. It's a question that will start to incite a brainstorm. So how might we do something and like I said, you have to walk the line between it not being too broad, but also not to be too specific. And crafting these can be a challenge. And so I want to use in this particular design example, just some base thinking some things that I would suggest that you think about as ways of crafting or framing How might we statement to try to help make this a little bit easier? And so let me give you a very specific example of what this would be. So if I'm thinking about a How might we statement if I'm thinking about this challenge that I have, one of the things I can think about is how do I really amp up how do I take advantage of the good things that are part of this challenge. So for something like that the example would be How might we use the kids energy to entertain fellow passengers? We have these kids, they have a lot of energy. Kids are fun. They're very free. They're very creative. How can I construct something and experience a place? Some sort of an activity, something that the other enter the other passengers might actually find entertaining? I could look at this a different way. How would I actually take the bad out of this challenge? So how might we separate the kids from fellow passengers, I could explore kind of an opposing position to the challenge. So how might we make the weight the most exciting part of the trip? So instead of looking at this in the negative instead of saying, well, these kids, the only way that these kids are possibly gonna interact with people is to irritate them? How can I take the opposite position and actually say, well, maybe I could make this whole thing a lot more fun. How could I question an assumption, potentially? So in this case, how might we entirely Remove the wait time at the airport. So let's just get rid of that problem altogether. So that there really there is no waiting and there's a chance for nobody to get ignored. Just get annoyed. I could go through and I could what I would describe as like go after adjectives. So something like, how might we make the rush refreshing instead of kind of frenzied? I think that I could go through and try to identify maybe an unexpected resource that I could tap into. So something like how might we leverage free time of fellow passengers to help share the load on entertaining these kids? I could create an analogy from a need or a context. So something like how might we make the airport more like a spa? Or another one, like how might we make the airport more like a playground? And maybe it's something that everybody kids and adults could take part in. I could take and really play a point of view against the challenge. So in that case, how might we make the airport a place where kids want to go? So instead of looking at travel as a burden instead of this something, because travel for kids is intimidating. That's part of the reason why they're overstimulated. They're out of their environment. It's a place that they don't necessarily understand or connected with. There's a lot of strangers around. So how can I play against that and actually make this a place that they want to go? How could I maybe change a status quo? So in that case, how might we make playful loud kids less annoying? So is it there? Is there a social convention? Is it a status quo, that that's just the way kids are and that this is the context that that starting to make people feel that way? And then the last thing that I'll do, and I know this is a lot of examples, I'll put all this in the show notes. I promise it don't feel like you have to sit there and scribble all this stuff down. I'll put this whole list in there. But you know, for the last one, how might I break a point of view down into pieces? And you know, so what do we mean by that? So in that case, there might be multiple How might we use to be able to unpack this, so Like, how might we entertain children? Or how might we slow down a mother so that by slower down, I mean, just give her the chance to be able to take a breath, give her the chance to be able to just kind of like reset and regroup, because there's so much going on that maybe she just needs a moment to be able to kind of get things back in order. Those are just some some general ways that I would tell you to look at this because I think this is where a lot of people struggle is that whenever they do it, they either make it too generic, or they make it too specific. But I think that those sort of like idea starters or those philosophical approaches to things, I think a lot of cases can make crafting, how might we use a lot easier? And now whenever you do this, how do you know if you're How might we use any good? And the rule of thumb that I always try to use is that whenever I come up with a How might we, I if I can come up with at least three ideas immediately, then I know that there's a good area of opportunity That being said, and the reason why I do that is because I think that it is good for you to make sure that it's not too constrained or too specific. Because if all I do is keep coming up with the same solution over and over again, probably too small, but also, if I'm doing it and it just wanders all over the place, then it's probably too big. And the way that I usually craft, how might we use is that I do it as an exercise. And I take the team, sit them all down the traditional, you know, sort of brainstorming way of doing things, a ton of post it notes and a ton of Sharpies, and give everybody a set amount of time to sit down and just honestly think up. However many of these, how might we statements they can come up with. And then we'll go through and we'll do a sorting exercise where we take those narrowed them down to the best kind of two or three. So let's do an exercise so that you can try this because I think there is absolutely no substitute for learning how to do this then by actually doing it. So what I want you to do is to think of a problem. Maybe it's one that you're trying to solve for, right Now, if it's not make one up, think about whatever. How do you redesign your house? How do you redesign your organization? How do you redesign a room? How do you you know, start a website, just pick anything, because we all have these kind of challenges that we wish we could solve that are rolling around in our brain. So hopefully you have one of those. And I think that what you want to do is you want to try to take some of the insights that you have around that challenge, and try to craft some how might we statements that you could use to run a brainstorm. Now, like I said, before, whenever we do this, this exercise is going to be you diverging. We talked about this. And in the last episode, diverging and doing a whole bunch of ideation write as many ideas down as you can. Don't worry about judgment. Don't worry about a few things. You can do them Don't worry about if they're right or wrong, just go for volume. And then what we're going to do after that is to ask you to then converge to narrow it down. So create as many ideas as you can then narrow them down to what you feel like is the top three or four How might we use what are the ones that you feel like would really be the best ones for you to run a brainstorm against. So if you're driving, maybe don't do this exercise now. But if you're not, pause this podcast, and I would say, Take 10, probably no more than 15 minutes to try to do this exercise, get some post it notes, get some Sharpies, and just try to write a bunch of how might we statements that you think would work against this particular creative challenge. And the reason why I say that, again, is that there is just there is no better way than actually doing this to be able to see how it actually works. So we're going to stop here for a second, hit pause, take 10 to 15 minutes at most, and go out and try this and just let it go. Like I said, there's no right or wrong, but just dive in and try it. And we'll be back in just a second to see how you did. Okay, so hopefully it's 10 or 15 minutes later. How'd that go? Was it easier or harder than you thought? The thing that I find with most people is they can If you're like, Oh, this should be really easy. But as you sit down to try to write it, especially if you try to write it in volume, that they start to really struggle. You know, this is one of those things where ultimately what we're going to do is we get to ideation is that I'm going to ask you to take these, how might we statements and then we're going to actually run a brainstorm against this. So you can actually see how do these statements really work out? Because there is that symbiotic relationship between the How might we statements in the brainstorm, and the only way that both are going to get better is to craft the statements, take them into a brainstorm and see how do they perform? Because that's really the truth. I say this all the time. The work is the truth. This is one of those places where the work is the truth. If you're How might we statements are good, if they're clear, if they're strong, you're going to get a lot of really good ideas, the brainstorm is going to go really, really well. If they're too generic, if they're too specific, you're either going to get way too many ideas that are just simply all over the place and you're going to be able to tell that you weren't specific enough, or you're basically just going to come back to this One idea and you lead the witness too much. But that's going to be the challenge of this that we're going to have to go through. Now let's go on and move to talk about ideation. Now, when we talk about ideation, ideation is when we take these, how might we ease and we just try to create as many ideas as possible through a brainstorm that seems incredibly obvious. But here again, things that are obvious sometimes are more nuanced, or they're maybe they're a little bit more difficult because like I said, How might we statement sound very simple. Whenever you actually sit down to try to do it, you see that they're a bit more complicated. I think that a brainstorm isn't that different. It sounds like Oh, great, we're gonna be together. We're gonna have a bunch of ideas. But how do you keep it focused on generating ideas and not judgment? How do you keep it focused, to make sure that we're going to get the most and the best ideas out of it? Because, you know, we've all been through brainstorms. And as you think about it, some go really, really well. Some are a complete disaster. People are, it's all over the place, there's no focus, you get done with an hour, two hours, three hours, you walk away from that and go, Wow, that was a massive waste of time. And we didn't come with anything new or interesting or original. So why is that? Why do we get this variation? And I would argue here again, that it's probably part art and science, but that what most people don't do is that they don't set rules. They don't set expectations. For this brainstorm. They don't set ways that people do you want people to act, ways you want people to think. And so as a result, it becomes a real challenge. So I've come up with and I've worked through this, I've talked about it in past shows. So if you've heard that lip sync along, if not, make sure that these are the things that you do when you go into a brainstorm because I think these are the things that honestly are really going to make a massive, massive difference in the quality of the ideas that come out. Because that's ultimately the thing is that even if you're writing great, how might we statement But then you're running a crap brainstorm, you're still not going to get the ideas that you want. So it's finding balance and focus in both of these pieces. And again, this symbiotic relationship between setting the stage and then actually executing on it. That becomes so important. So seven rules for running a better brainstorm. The first one we've talked about a little bit whenever we talked about the How might we statements, and the first one is to just simply defer judgment. And now this can take some level of policing this can make take some level of kind of making sure that everyone's clear and understanding what this is that this is a place that's safe. This is a place where we have ideas. This is a place where no matter what it is, no matter how ridiculous it might be. We want to defer judgment on it. And because the challenge here is that as somebody who goes out and teaches design thinking the reason why this is so important, is because if you and your company and your industry are running a design thinking exercise, Well, then you can probably be sure that someone who is in your same role, but on a different team in a different company, who is one of your competitors, is probably also having a brainstorm both of you trying to find some way of finding competitive differentiation. And the reason why you want to defer judgment and there's a few other things that will also as we go through these rules that will lead back to this. But the reason why I want to defer judgment is because I want to come up with great ideas. I want to push the edge we talked about this before, because if I don't, if I take the obvious, if I take the easy if I take this thing that feels safe and feels nice. I'm not gonna separate myself from that other company. And I guess that's the thing that I'm constantly thinking about it. But one of the things that drives me is the fact that there is somebody else out there, who's also in my competitive set, having this brainstorm who may be coming up with better ideas than me. So I need to be smart. I need to be good. I need to really be pushing the edge on that. This. And by doing that I can't constrain myself, I can't narrow this down too quickly. So defer judgment until later in the process. And the next part of this, which absolutely goes hand in hand, is to encourage wild ideas. Because like I said, if your competitors are doing that brainstorm if they're doing that same thing, if you're doing the obvious in the easy, you're gonna launch the same product. And this was why I mentioned a minute ago about what I see when I teach these design thinking classes, because I'll come in, I'll give the room a challenge. We'll say there's 10 teams, nine of them come up with the exact same idea. They take the obvious in the easy, which in some cases, in a lot of cases, honestly, it's probably understandable. They're there to learn the methodology. We aren't completely focused on the quality of those ideas. But I think that in aggregate, though, it shows you that if you don't defer judgment, and if you don't encourage wild ideas, you're probably going to land where everybody else does. And yes, you make it a little prettier. But if you aren't finding differentiation if you aren't in take This moment, like I said, this is the moment of opportunity. This is what we do this for, is to go through and to try to find great. And the difference between good and great is deferring judgment is encouraging wild ideas, his passion, his belief, is going through and saying that, like the details, and the way that we approach this, and our willingness to get outside of our comfort zone is what's going to take us from good to great. So whenever you do this, encourage wild ideas, because if you're just always playing it safe, and if that's what you're steering everybody towards, you're not going to launch anything that's going to make any big difference. The next piece of this is that it's a brainstorm. And as we said before, creativity is a team sport. Well, with it being a team sport, that means that what you need to do is to teach and coach everybody who's in a brainstorm, to build on the ideas of other people. And because so often what I see whenever I go in and I work with teams, is that a brainstorm is really just a bunch of people sitting around waiting to say Their idea. And so what you have to do is to watch to coach to teach them that what they need to do is that yes, their ideas are important. Yes, they need to be shared. But in the moment when someone else is talking, to be present in that moment, to listen to that idea. And even if you think it is a completely crap idea, even if you think it is the dumbest thing that anyone has ever said, and you've ever heard in your entire life, what you need to do is to understand that there's still something to it, that person thinks there's some value to it. So as a result, the thing is that can I take it? Can I make it better? Can I take that insight and improve upon it? Can I do something to make it bigger and better and stronger? can I build on it? Because this is the power of the Wii. It's what allows us to come together to take each other as ideas to pressure test them to try to break them to try to make them better, to stand on each other's shoulders to get taller, not by ripping each other down, not by judging things immediately. Not by just simply dismissing an idea in your head and kind of going, Wow, that's the dumbest thing I ever heard. And just simply waiting for the next break of silence where you can then launch you're obviously completely brilliant world changing, you know, globe shaking idea. The next thing is, and this probably next one is a bit of a, something you need to watch for, especially if you're How might we statements are a bit too broad. But to make sure that the brainstorm stays on topic, because there's a lot of passion. There's a lot of ideation, there's a lot of thinking that's going around. But what I want to make sure is that we're solving for this one particular How might we statement and if we go back and look at the examples that I gave around the children at the airport, the reason why you go back and look at those is that they set up a very specific set of boundaries that we need to stay inside of. So what you need to do is to make sure that your brainstorm stays inside of those boundaries that we don't start to drift that we don't start to go on to other topics. Now if you find an area that you think is a great insight, if you find something that is a new line of thinking that you haven't thought, capture it write down more often might we statements on the side like don't lose that, but at the same point, finish out the topic that you're on before you move on to that next one. Because if not, things will start to get diluted. At the end, it becomes hard to look at how do we group and narrow down these ideas, things just start to be able to kind of drift around too much. Here again, the other thing that goes hand in hand with staying on topic and building on the ideas of others, is to make sure that you only have one conversation at a time. And this is easily the hardest, most often broken rule in this entire thing. Because the reality is, again, people are very passionate, people are very creative. They want to share their ideas. So if I have a group of eight people, very quickly, I may notice that this group may break into two or three separate conversations. So whenever you see that happen, what you want to do is to stop everyone and to go through one at a time through the first conversation, the second conversation, the third conversation, let them Talk when I say whatever their idea was, make sure you capture it and move on to the second one, make sure you capture it, move on to the third and make sure you capture that. But then continue the conversation as one group, because I can't build on ideas that I don't hear. And so if there are multiple conversations, if this is being broken into small pieces, I don't have the chance to hear those other ideas, I don't have the chance to build on that I'm losing the power of the group, because I'm making it into smaller groups. It's like I said, the biggest number that I would tell you to put a group into for a brainstorm is six, probably eight people at most, because more than that, the one conversation gets extremely hard. And also because you know, you're trying to do this in a set amount of time, the time is gonna run out, people are gonna start to panic ideas will get lost. So make sure that you're sizing this the right way. So you can really let that happen and just one conversation happens at a time. So the next part of this may sound a little counterintuitive to one of the things that I did whenever we first talked about design thinking, because when we talk about design thinking what I said Was that the biggest thing that's going to trip up design thinking is the word design in the title. So this next piece of advice may sound a little bit contrary to that, but I'll let me explain it. So the next one is to be visual. Because I think that the one thing that helps ideas the most is to be able to do some sort of visual to it. Now, that doesn't mean that it has to be a sketch, it doesn't mean that it's a wireframe. It doesn't mean that it has to be something big. But I think the ability to somehow visualize what the concept or what the idea is can be really helpful. And the thing that I'll also say is that anybody, I don't care how artistically inclined you are, can do a quick sketch. They can you can draw a stick figure, you can do something. And here again, this isn't about the quality of this particular sketch, but it's about the fact that just simply being visual sometimes can really help. The other thing that I will say, though, too, is that sometimes being visual can become a detriment. And so whenever you run a brainstorm, what are the challenges that you need or what are the ones challenges that you have is the fact that I don't want people to get overly visual, I don't want them to start sketching out solutions. I don't want them to go out and start to kind of really start to do the wireframe or start to go to the execution phase too quickly. So like one of the things that I'll actually do to try to get around this is that if I see teams that are doing that, they're trying to actually sketch out a wireframe they're trying to draw out the ad they're trying to draw out whatever it is, is that there's actually a physical way that I can inhibit them from doing this quite honestly, which is what I'm going to do is I'm going to give them small note cards, probably three by five note cards, and I'm gonna go out I'm gonna get the biggest fattest chisel tip Sharpie that I can find like the one that almost looks like I don't know what, like a cucumber or something like they're crazy big. But so why do I do that? Well, the reason why I want to do that is because I want you to be visual, I want you to sketch but I don't want you to necessarily be able to draw a button and start to kind of write the text that's going to be in it too executional to small. So the just the physical dynamic of a small card with a huge market. will prevent you from doing that you can't get into that much detail. It's more gestural, it's more visual. So that's one of the things to think about is that are there also ways that you can look at the tools that you're actually using, that will help actually set up your brainstorm to become successful? And the last one we've talked about this already, is to go for quantity. Whether it's an How might we statements, which is really a form of a brainstorm, if you think about it, or if it is actually then doing the actual brainstorm, what we want to do is we want to go for as many ideas as we can, because the challenge that you have, and here again, the place where you're going to need to coach or push is that you'll see that the team will go through and you give them the challenge and they get in there and their browser all furrowed and they look all worried and they're in there and they're working hard and they're going at it. And then somebody hits on something good. Everybody goes, ooh, good idea. Like that. Love it, love it, everything about it when a beat for Halloween. But the problem then is is that everybody falls in love with it. The pressure comes away they feel like oh, we have have an idea I can slow down, I can stop. I can feel better about myself. Well, no, you shouldn't. No, you can't. Because if you fall in love with that idea, there may be a lot of other ones that you're leaving on the table. So yeah, it's great that you have one. One should not be the expectation quantity should be the expectation expectation should be three, four or five 810. great ideas, not just one, because that's the challenge is that so often I see them they find that one, and then they just kind of like push it around. They just make little variations of it. They make little additions to it. They aren't trying to find a whole new lines of thought. That's a massive, massive problem. Because like I said, the whole point of this is the fact that this is a brainstorm. This is opportunity. This is the magic moment. This is the time that we all do this for. So take advantage of it. Don't fall in love so quickly with your ideas and actually go out and go for quantity. So let's do another exercise. So hopefully you crafted some of those how My restatements, and like I said the only way to really pressure test those to see and understand how to write them, is to run them through a brainstorm. So the exercise that I would say is that you can try this by yourself, if you have a group of people even better. Try it with them, even if you need to, like pause the podcast, go into work, try it over lunch, try it with your wife, your parents, your significant other, like whatever, try it with somebody, but just actually to do a brainstorm. And to take your highlight reel and to run that using these seven rules. And here again, we're going to divergent converge. So go through, go for quantity, come up with as many ideas as you can then hear, again, narrowed down to your top three or four ideas. Pause the podcast again. And this time take probably, let's say 20 minutes to do this exercise. But take that how might we or take multiple how many ways it has however ambitious you want to feel? But actually run them through a brainstorm and try to sit down Look at that. How might we stay on topic? Stay with one conversation at a time? How many of these Can you come up with? So hit pause? Like I said, Take about 20 minutes. Again, if you're driving, maybe not the moment. But try it, pressure test that how might we and try those rules in a brainstorm and see how it goes. So hopefully here again, it's about 20 minutes later. How did that go? And I'm guessing that you started to probably see some of the strengths and some of the flaws in that how might we statement? I'm hoping that with those seven rules, you started to see brainstorms a bit differently, that you started to pay a bit more attention to the dynamic, you started to see the things that are a benefit to the brainstorm, but you also start to see the things that can really be a challenge. I'm going to guess that the hardest part of this, like I said before, was probably keeping it to one conversation. That's the number one rule that gets broken so so much, because people just aren't used to it, but once you coach them on it, they'll start to do it naturally. But I think that the other part that this hopefully has taught you the other thing that you'll hopefully see is that you as a The person who is the design thinking Sherpa, the design thinking guru, the coach, the leader, that whatever it is, is that you need to be the one who drives and guides the brainstorm. Because that's the problem is that you need to walk around, you need to be able to make sure there is that one conversation at a time, they aren't getting settled on just one idea that they're really kind of going through and continuing to do these sorts of things that you can guide, police, nudge, encourage discourage all of these different behaviors to be able to keep this going so that it is as productive as it can be. That you can keep it to the rules, you can keep the energy up, and you can keep it moving forward. Because that's the thing. That's what a leader does in moments like this is that you are the Sherpa, you're the cheerleader, you're the one that gets them up the mountain to be able to do that. But you also have to like I said before, encourage those wild ideas. And that sometimes this is a dissatisfaction you will have to build into yourself that you don't just suddenly go Wow, that's a great idea. Oh, I feel so much better. We have idea. Now you have to go like, great. Why is it only one idea? Why is it not three? Or why is it not five, to push the team to set that expectation? Because I think so many people in these instances, they don't like to set expectations on people, they don't like to say that wasn't good enough. Because the ones wasn't good enough is a hard conversation, I have to sit down with somebody and go, look, you could have done better, we could have done better, we should have done better. So let's go do it again, let's correct the mistakes that we made. Let's set this expectation. And let's keep it going. That's really it for ideation. And like I said, I think this is the part that is great, as most people connect with the most. But I think it's also the part of the process that they so often need the most fine tuning on, because so many of them get the creative brief, and they don't think about how might we construct they don't think about how do you get the research and the insights actually in the brainstorm How can I construct this in certain ways, where I'm challenging a point of view, I'm looking at a positive, I'm looking at a negative, I'm doing something to try to really Look at and to find my way around that particular challenge. There's a lot of different ways, even if it's just one very specific thing. You take that list that I was using to craft those, how might we statements, and you can suddenly look at a problem from a lot of different angles, you can cope with a lot of different things, and be able to kind of solution it in a lot of different ways. And I think that is the art and the science of how might we is that it allows you to get that flexibility allows you to get more of that 360 view of a problem as opposed to just kind of like the one first and only point of view that we get. So hopefully you found that insightful that it's some fine tuning. But then also then when you take it into the brainstorm, and I think this is the part where most traders go, Oh, this is my profession. I do this all the time. You can always do it better. You can always, always do it better. So think about those rules. Think about it. Whenever you you know, come in whenever you guide the team when you set that expectation, but also understand your role in it, that you aren't just a passive participant that you are the person the leader By the one who has to get them through this process to really be able to do that, because that's the thing, right? We can't. And I've talked about this in the last episode as well, we have to find the arrogance that says, Oh, we know the consumer, we don't have to do our research. We have to find the areas and said, oh, I've already found the insight, we have to find the arrogance that says, Oh, my creative process is already good enough. Because that that arrogance is just death in all parts of it. If you think you're too good to do something, if you think you can't learn something, if you think there isn't a way for you to get better. Your career is in for a bumpy ride. Because there's nobody I know. And well, I've worked out to work with some insanely creative people. They all of them know that there's more that they know they can learn, they can always get better, they can always work on their craft, they can always find some better way of sharpening that knife of honing that edge to get it better. And that's what this does. This gives us a construct to be able to do it. It gives us a construct to be able to let everyone participate and creativity gives us as creatives a construct to drive that conversation. Inside of these companies, and it gives me as a leader, the ability to interact and lead a team to come up with these solutions, and to be able to really kind of move the needle. So that's the power of this construct is the ability to let all this stuff in. So the next time we'll actually talk about two things. We're going to talk about the last part of this process, which is really as we go into implementation as we go into then taking these ideas to prototype them to make them real to fail fast to understand the value of all of that. But then the last part that we're going to talk about is the now what all this sounds great. Sounds very interesting. Sounds nice. Sounds like I get why people are into this. What the hell do I do with it? How do I get it into my culture? How do I get it into my company? How do I start implementing this? What the hell should I do next? So we're actually gonna talk about that. There's a lot that I've learned about how to bring this into companies. There's a lot that I've learned about the way that you kind of keep this process going and I want to share that with you guys. in the hopes that this isn't just an interesting sort of thing that just you implement on your process. But it's something you can take into your company, you can take it into your team, you can make your work better, and be able to share it with other people to be able to do that. So, like I said before, I know we covered a lot of ground, there are a lot of very specific examples. If you want to head over to podcast, Stephen Gates, calm Stephen has STP h n. You can go in and go to the show notes. I'll have all this stuff listed out in there. Again, I'm still spending a lot of time really trying to be much more diligent about making those show notes better. You can see related articles that I've written I'll put some other reference things in there you can look at listen and look at other episodes. If you want to if you want to be a part of this conversation, if there's something that you think works really well if there's something you think didn't. The best place I would tell you to go is to go to the Facebook page, just search for The Crazy One podcast like that page. You know, I've got listeners who write in questions like that try to help them there. You can also if you want to if you're feeling a bit more energetic or want to write me a question and 140 care Or a photo or something like that, you can usually find me at St. Gates on twitter, instagram search Stephen Gates on LinkedIn wherever I'm on every social media network in the world. But feel free to reach out. But like I said, the Facebook page is when I try to encourage because I want other people to see these questions. I want them to see these answers. As always, the boys down illegal want me to remind you that all the views here are my own. They don't represent any of my current or current or former employees. And so until next time, I want to say thanks, and I say it every time because I made it every time but thank you for your time. I know that time is truly the only real luxury that any of us have. And I'm always incredibly humbled you want to spend any of it with me. So until next time, and as always, stay crazy